The digital world is full of cloud storage and other related services. It’s definitely not a new idea — Dropbox has been on the task for years, and it wasn’t even the first — but ever since Apple decided to go iCloud, other corporations and entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to grab the market. There’s really nothing wrong with Dropbox, though. It’s been a solid service since its inception in 2008 and it’s been constantly improving, trying to develop the best user experience possible.

Then, in all the glory of this cloud giant, a new threat surfaced. Its name is SugarSync, the simple, yet efficient alternative to Dropbox. Interestingly enough, it too was launched in 2008, but it didn’t take off like Dropbox. Now, the developers have begun a new version — 2.0 — of the service and released it in the form of a public beta. The company says it “merges power and simplicity” becoming “the simplest cloud to use”. Can this bring a new wave of competition to such a longstanding foe as Dropbox? (more…)

When building a website, it’s important to have a different set of eyes take a look and let you know if you’re on the right track, particularly because there are so many moving parts and so many doubts that can arise. Are the buttons on my site easy to find? Is the banner large enough? How about legibility? Is there a logical flow in my registration process? Which of these two header graphics should I use?

While there are some questions you can answer yourself, sometimes you might need an outside opinion. There are a ton of tools available including OpenHallway, Usabilia, and Silverback that do the job and then some, but what if your needs are simpler?

BagelHint is a little app with which you can create easy usability surveys quickly. Developed by a compact UK-based team called EpicBagel, this service is great for designers and developers looking to get started with UX feedback and testing, with projects that need just pointers and not deep analytics. There’s nothing to install and your results are displayed in real-time. All you need to use it are some screenshots and a few minutes of your time. Let’s set up a trial account and see how we go, shall we?

Ascertaining what aspects of your web page appeals to your visitors and which do not can be a very tricky business. Now that there are so many competitors available in even the smallest niches online, converting traffic into business is key to success. You just can’t wing it by going with your gut alone.

Website optimization is more of an art than science. You will need tools, techniques and some patience to tweak & re-tweak things untill everything is just about right. Today we’ll take a look at how Visual Website Optimizer can help you optimize your website using A/B and multivariate tests.